Adrian Heath (painter)

Adrian Heath (1920–1992) was a 20th-century British painter.^[1]

Heath was born in Burma and attended Bryanston School in Dorset, southern England. In 1938, he studied art under Stanhope Forbes at Newlyn. In 1939 and 1945–47, he attended the Slade School of Art. He served in the RAF as a tail gunner in a[Wellington bomber in World War II, but spent almost the entire war as a prisoner of war at Stalag 383.^[2] During this period he became friends with and taught fellow POW Terry Frost to paint.^[3]

In 1949 and 1951, he visited St Ives, Cornwall, where he met Ben Nicholson. In the early 1950s, he was also associated with Victor Pasmore and Anthony Hill. As such he became the main link between the emerging St Ives School and British Constructivism. He was also influenced by D'Arcy Thompson. In 1953 Heath published 'Abstract Painting: its Origins and Meaning' a slim but perceptive volume appraising the development of abstraction by the early moderns.

He exhibited at the Musée Carcassonne in 1948, and at the Redfern Gallery, London, from 1953, together with other galleries in London. His work is in the collections of the Tate Gallery and the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC.

Heath taught at Bath Academy of Art (1955–76) and the University of Reading (1980–85). He was artist in residence at the University of Sussex in 1969 and a senior fellow at the Glamorgan Institute of Higher Education, Wales (1977–80).

Heath was a member of 56 Group Wales from 1978 to 1982.^[4]

Adrian Heath painted abstract and semi-abstract pictures in oils and acrylic paints. He was also a collagist and constructivist.

Adrian and his wife Corinne were also campaigners to preserve the character and heritage of Fitzrovia where they lived for many years. Adrian and Corinne were founder members of the campaign group The Charlotte Street Association who fight to increase social housing and preserve the character the area around Charlotte Street and in Fitzrovia.^[5][6]

References

1. Obituary: Adrian Heath, by Brian Robertson, The Independent, 21 September 1992, accessed 26 November 1992
2. "Adrian Heath | The Redfern Gallery". Retrieved 7 January 2020.
3. "Performance: Stalag Happy – Performance at Tate St Ives | Tate". Tate. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
4. Moore, David (2012). A Taste of the Avant-Garde - 56 Group Wales 56 Years. Brecon, Wales: Crooked Window. ISBN 978-0-9563602-1-2.
5. Derwent London cannot claim an association with progressive artists, by Fiona Green, Fitzrovia News, 20 September 2010, accessed 26 November 2010
6. Charlotte Street Association – ‘Our forty years of invisible victories’, by Jamie Welham, Camden New Journal, 11 November 2010 Archived 8 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, accessed 26 November 2010

External links

• Adrian Heath biography